Dennis Lotis, who has died aged 97, built his career during a decade when popular culture turned upside down. In 1957 he was voted the UK’s top male singer in a Melody Maker poll for his interpretations of songs such as Nevertheless, Such a Night and Flamingo. Yet his crooning style, thanks to rock’n’roll, was fated to go the way of big band swing.
Lotis had arrived from his native South Africa in austerity London in late 1950, armed with a letter of introduction from the Anglo-American saxophonist Don Barrigo, which he presented to the bandleader Ted Heath. Palais de dance and decaying music halls were where young people – the term “teenagers” lay in the future – found live music, and in that world of dance bands Heath reigned almost supreme.
